When is a widescreen telly a widescreen telly

Ok had my 37inch widescreen telly now for a few weeks, but after watching a few films on sky I still have to put up with words off the edge of the screen something I thought I would never have to put up with again you know when a film starts and you have the credits etc.
So anyone want to tell me where I'am going wrong? and yes I have changed the pic mode from wide norm etc
p.s thought it might be sky showing the films in like cinema screen or something

There are so many vision permutations now,this happens all the time.

Basically, conventional TV is 4:3, your tv is 16:9 ratio, 16 units wide per 9 tall. Movies are even wider, think about it, your local cinema is way wider than they are tall. Also, many Plasma screens are neither movie size or 16:9 so there's another whole minefield there.

A full cinema profile film won't fit on yout TV without bars, they usually chop a bit off for the DVD. If it's a TV showing, it may end up with missing words depending on how it was shot/cut etc. An old panamorphic tv conversion of a film will be all to **** too.

Also, check your sky box is outputting in the correct format and the tv is receiving the same.

[TSM]

Your tv may have a mode to zoom in so you can fix that, but as arenalife said, cinema movies are shot at a diffrent aspect ratio, so 16:9 is a compramise between standard 4:3 tv and ratios used for movies.

* 1.33:1 A standard television set; roughly equivalent to 4:3.
* 1.37:1 Referred to as the academy aspect ratio. The standard for films shot before the mid-1950s.
* 1.66:1 A bit wider than a standard TV, but not by much.
* 1.78:1 The dimensions of a widescreen television set; roughly equivalent to 16:9.
* 1.85:1 Popular aspect ratio for many movies.
* 2.35: Another popular aspect ratio for movies.

More info here http://www.hometheaterforum.com/home/wsfaq.html

[peterco]

As arenalife say's go into the service menu of your sky box and alter the picture setting to 16:9 and save,also set it to RGB output.Set the tv screen to Auto,then it will alter the screen ratio's to what is output by the sky box.

pete